Large speakers plus EQ, what have you done?


Hi Everyone,

I’m hoping to collect experiences from those who have:

1. Large (floor standers) with genuinely deep bass

2. Have EQ’d the speakers, at least through the bass section.

There are many ways to get excellent bass, but please keep OTHER methods off this discussion.  If you use a subwoofer, or bass array, or whatever, this discussion is not about that. I know I’ve recommended some of those ideas myself. I just genuinely want to know who has tried this particular combination and what their experience has been.

This is also not a discussion about what I’m going to buy. Just curious who has done this and how far they feel it got them in terms of integrating the speakers with the room.

Were you satisfied?  Did you end up giving up and doing something else?

 

Thanks!

 

Erik

erik_squires

I do use subs, for the reason being that what and how they do it isn't found in integrated form in a pair of floor-standing main speakers (the subs take up 20 cu. ft. per cab, as a FIY). The main speakers are large (6 ft. 2" in height) as well, and in conjunction with each of their corresponding sub is considered and treated like a single speaker system per channel. The system covers down to 20-25Hz at full tilt. 

If that's an acceptable outset for the criteria set by the OP (again, essentially they're large floor standing speakers divided into two cabs per channel, treated and configured as a single entity), here's the deal: they're "EQ'd" actively over the entire frequency range by the same, quality DSP unit, and as such - combined with placement and acoustic measures - gives you an elaborate way to "morph" the performance at the LP in all aspects of filter settings - on the fly. Normally one isn't granted such a plethora of EQ'ing possibilities, and thus the performance of speakers is mostly rooted in their pre-configured passive filters (and room integration) with any EQ'ing done "on top" of this as an extra measure/layer, either via DSP or some form of analogue equalizer device.

I find having the opportunity of described active EQ'ing capabilities to be indispensable. We near-field measured my main speakers for notch placements, and measurements at the LP indicated PEQ areas in the filter settings. Everything from hereon was done by ear; fine tuning Q's, gain structure, delays, crossover points, slopes, overlapping/not overlapping (asymmetrical) XO points, etc.

I've tried DRC FIR-filter in both the time and amplitude domain over my previous, passively configured speakers, but wasn't entirely satisfied with the results as I found there to be a noticeable processing imprinting. As is I prefer the more "manual" by-ear approach aided by measurements, actively - meaning the EQ'ing is applied at the heart of the speaker's intrinsically necessary DSP crossover as the only signal layer.  

Current speakers Paradigm 120H. Powered woofers with room correction from 300h down. Without running the room correction still sound good but with it engaged much tighter more articulate bass. Non corrected sounds much more bloated boomy and loose in comparison. 
 

 

Hi @erik_squires Nice to see you back! Summarizing, I’ve applied various DSP corrections in Roon to all my speakers in various rooms, large and small, in order to tweak the sound to compensate for room acoustics as well as to my personal preferences.

First I apply room correction using convolution filters I created using REW software.

In most cases after that there are still additional filters I apply to the bass like notch filters to specifically address bass nodes further if needed. Also with full range speakers when driven by beefy enough amp I may apply a low shelf filter to boost bass levels somewhat to personal preference.

With less than full range speakers and/or with a more limited amp, I typically will roll the lowest octave or so bass off similarly in order to allow the amp to drive the speakers more cleanly.


To help determine what adjustments for room acoustics may be needed still after applying the convolution filter, I play white noise and measure the response to identify any areas that look clearly out of whack, but my ears are still the final arbitrator based on what I hear playing a variety of tracks.  

That’s it generally. Details will vary case by case.

Does building a custom room or optimizing the room with treatments count as EQ ing ?

I had some large Usher speakers for my large audio rooms then I moved to a new house with a 16’ audio rooms. I tried using dsp to tame the bass for 3 years. I got it where it was ok sounding but something was missing. I also had the super bass traps, asc corner tube traps, etc..

I ended up buying some new Revel speakers with multiple smaller woofers. Got rid of dsp, all super bass traps, and the pair of other traps, and I have all the bass that I want, as quiet or as loud as I want. I’m putting up all the speakers/traps up for sale. Size your speaker to the room without al the overhead you need to get something to big to sound good in a smaller room.